Women are Heroes Project Favorite 

In Women Are Heroes, JR introduces women who sometimes look death in the face, who go from laughter to tears, who are generous, have nothing and yet share, who have had a painful past and long to build a happy future.

JR’s intention in this project was to underline women’s pivotal role in society and to highlight their dignity by photographing them in their daily lives and pasting their photographs in places that would make sense – in their villages, in cities nearby, or on the other side of the world. JR asked the women if they wanted to make a face.

The project had various installations in Brazil, India, Cambodia, and in Africa—in Kenya, Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Sudan. The people in the neighborhoods such as Rio de Janeiro’s favelas and Kibera slums helped install and paste huge pictures giving local women a strong voice.

The project also resulted in a feature documentary film that was an Official Selection at the Cannes Film festival. In the summer of 2014 JR revisited the project with a symbolic piece posted across 150 cargo ship containers.

One Women Are Heroes project in Kenya in 2009 reveals the eyes of the women from the community pasted on the train.